Francis Richard "Dick" ScobeeLieutenant Colonel, United States
Air Force

A Vietnam War fighter
pilot who joined the U.S. Astronaut Corps, he was the Shuttle Challenger
Commander.

He entered Astronaut training in 1977 and was second in command of
the Challenger on a successful mission in April 1984. He died on January
28, 1986 when Challenger exploded 73.5 seconds after launch from Cape Kennedy,
Florida.

A Presidential Commission determined that an o-ring in the right
booster rocket failed to contain the pressure of hot gasses produced by
the burning rocket fuel, causing the tank to tear away from the booster's
wall, thus rupturing the fuel tank and causing a massive explosion.

He was buried in Section 46 in Arlington National Cemetery on what
would have been his 47th birthday. His grave is marked with a regulation
headstone which bears the United States Air Force Astronaut Insignia. His
grave is directly across from the Tomb of the Unknowns
and the Memorial Amphitheater, and just a short
distance from that of Captain Michael John Smith
of
the Challenger in Section 7-A.

The
Shuttle Explodes6 IN CREW
AND HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHER ARE KILLED
74 SECONDS AFTER LIFTOFF

Cape Canaveral,
Fla. Jan. 28, 1986 -- The space shuttle Challenger exploded in a ball of
fire shortly after it left the launching pad today, and all seven astronauts
on board were lost.

The worst
accident in the history of the American space program, it was witnessed
by thousands of spectators who watched in wonder, then horror, as the ship
blew apart high in the air.

Flaming
debris rained down on the Atlantic Ocean for an hour after the explosion,
which occurred just after 11:39 A. M. It kept rescue teams from reaching
the area where the craft would have fallen into the sea, about 18 miles
offshore.

It seemed
impossible that anyone could have lived through the terrific explosion
10 miles in the sky, and officials said this afternoon that there was no
evidence to indicate that the five men and two women aboard had survived.

No Ideas
Yet as to Cause

There were
no clues to the cause of the accident. The space agency offered no immediate
explanations, and said it was suspending all shuttle flights indefinitely
while it conducted an inquiry. Officials discounted speculation that cold
weather at Cape Canaveral or an accident several days ago that slightly
damaged insulation on the external fuel tank might have been a factor.

Americans
who had grown used to the idea of men and women soaring into space reacted
with shock to the disaster, the first time United States astronauts had
died in flight. President Reagan canceled the State of the Union Message
that had been scheduled for tonight, expressing sympathy for the families
of the crew but vowing that thenation's
exploration of space would continue.

Mrs. McAuliffe,
a high-school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, was to have been the
first ordinary citizen in space.

After a
Minute, Fire and Smoke The Challenger lifted off flawlessly this morning,
after three days of delays, for what was to have been the 25th mission
of the reusable shuttle fleet that was intended to make space travel commonplace.
The ship rose for about a minute on a column of smoke and fire from its
five engines.

Suddenly,
without warning, it erupted in a ball of flame.

The shuttle
was about 10 miles above the earth, in the critical seconds when the two
solid-fuel rocket boosters are firing as well as the shuttle's main engines.
There was some discrepancy about the exact time of the blast: The National
Aeronautics and Space Administration said they lost radio contact with
the craft 74 seconds into the flight, plus or minus five seconds.

Two large
white streamers raced away from the blast, followed by a rain of debris
that etched white contrails in the cloudless sky and then slowly headed
toward the cold waters of the nearby Atlantic.

The eerie
beauty of the orange fireball and billowing white trails against the blue
confused many onlookers, many of whom did not at first seem aware that
the aerial display was a sign that something had gone terribly wrong.

There were
few sobs, moans or shouts among the thousands of tourists, reporters, and
space agency officials gathered on an unusually cold Florida day to celebrate
the liftoff, just a stunned silence as they began to realize that the Challenger
had vanished.

Among the
people watching were Mrs. McAuliffe's two children, her husband and her
parents and hundreds of students, teachers and friends from Concord.

"Things
started flying around and spinning around and I heard some oh's and ah's,
and at that moment I knew something was wrong," said Brian Ballard, the
editor of The Crimson Review at Concord High School.

"I felt
sick to my stomach. I still feel sick to my stomach."

Ships Searching
the Area

At an outdoor
news conference held here this afternoon, Jesse W. Moore, the head of the
shuttle program at NASA, said: "I regret to report that, based on
very preliminary searches of the ocean where the Challenger impacted this
morning, these searches have not revealed any evidence that the crew of
the Challenger survived." Behind him, in the distance, the American flag
waved at half-staff.

Coast Guard
ships were in the area of impact tonight and planned to stay all night,
with airplanes set to comb the area at first light for debris that could
provide the clues to the catastrophe. Some material from the shattered
craft was reported to be washing ashore on Florida beaches tonight, mostly
the small heat-shielding tiles that protect the shuttle as it passes through
the earth's atmosphere.

Films of
the explosion showed a parachute drifting toward the sea, apparently one
that would have lowered one of the huge reusable booster rockets after
its fuel was spent.

Pending
an investigation, Mr. Moore said at the news conference this afternoon,
hardware, photographs, computer tapes, ground support equipment and notes
taken by members of the launching team would be impounded.

The three
days of delays and a tight annual launching schedule did not force a premature
launching, Mr. Moore said in answer to a reporter's question.

'Flight
Safety a Top Priority'

"There was
no pressure to get this particular launch up," he said. "We have always
maintained that flight safety was a top priority in the program."

Several
hours after the accident, Mr. Moore announced the appointment of an interim
review team, assigned to preserve and identify flight data from the mission,
pending the appointment of a formal investigating committee.

The members
of the interim panel are Richard G. Smith, the director of the Kennedy
Space Center; Arnold Aldridge, the manager of the National Space Transportation
System, Johnson Space Center; William Lucas, director of the Marshall Space
Flight Center; Walt Williams, a NASA consultant, and James C. Harrington,
the director of Spacelab, who will serve as executive secretary.

A NASA spokesman
said a formal panel could be appointed as soon as Wednesday by Dr. William
R. Graham, the director of the space agency.

All American
manned space launchings were stopped for more than a year and a half after
the worst previous American space accident, in January 1967, when three
astronauts were killed in a fire in an Apollo capsule on the launching
pad.

'Hope We
Go Today'

This year's
schedule was to have been the most ambitious in the history of the shuttle
program, with 15 flights planned. For the Challenger, the workhorse of
the nation's shuttle fleet, this was to have been the 10th mission.

Today's
launching had been delayed three times in three days by bad weather. The
Challenger was to have launched two satellites and Mrs. McAullife was to
have broadcast two lessons from space to millions of students around the
country.

All day
long, well after the explosion, the large mission clocks scattered about
the Kennedy Space Center continued to run ticking off the minutes and seconds
of a flight that had long ago ended.

Long before
liftoff this morning, skies over the Kennedy Space Center were clear and
cold, reporters and tourists shivering in leather gloves, knit hats and
down coats as temperatures hovered in the low 20's.

Icicles
formed as ground equipment sprayed water on the launching pad, a precaution
against fire.

At 9:07
A. M., after the astronauts were seated in the shuttle, wearing gloves
because the interior was so cold, ground controllers broke into a round
of applause as the shuttle's door, whose handle caused problems yesterday,
which was closed.

"Good morning,
Christa, hope we go today," said ground control as the New Hampshire school
teacher settled into the spaceplane.

"Good morning,"
she replied, "I hope so, too." Those are her last known words.

The liftoff,
originally scheduled for a 9:38 A. M., was delayed two hours by problems
on the ground caused first by a failed fire-protection device and then
by ice on the shuttle's ground support structure.

The launching
was the first from pad 39-B, which had recently undergone a $150 million
overhaul. It had last been used for a manned launching in the 1970's.

Just before
liftoff, Challenger's external fuel tank held 500,000 gallons of liquid
hydrogen and oxygen, which are kept separate because they are highly volatile
when mixed. The fuel is used in the shuttle's three main engines.

At 11:38
A. M. the shuttle rose gracefully off the launching pad, heading in to
the sky. The shuttle's main engines, after being cut back slightly just
after liftoff, a normal procedure, were pushed ahead to full power as the
shuttle approached maximum dynamic pressure when it broke through the sound
barrier.

"Challenger,
go with throttle up," said James D. Wetherbee of mission control in Houston
about 11:39 A. M.

"Roger,"
replied the commander, Mr. Scobee, "go with throttle up."

Those were
the last words to be heard on the ground from the winged spaceplane and
her crew of seven.

As the explosion
occurred, Stephen A. Nesbitt of Mission Control in Houston, apparently
looking at his notes and not the explosion on his television monitor, noted
that the shuttle's velocity was "2,900 feet per second, altitude 9 nautical
miles, downrange distance 7 nautical miles." That is a speed of about 1,977
miles an hour, a height of about 10 statute miles and a distance down range
of about 8 miles.

The first
official word of the disaster came from Mr. Nesbitt of Mission Control,
who reported, "a major malfunction." He added that communications with
the ship had failed 1 minute 14 seconds into the flight.

"We have
no downlink," he said, referring to communications from the Challenger.
"We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has
exploded."

His voice
cracked. "The flight director confirms that," he continued. "We're checking
with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point."

Tapes Showed
Small Fire

In the sky
above the Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle's two solid-fuel rocket boosters
sailed into the distance.

The explosion,
later viewed in slow-motion televised replays taken by cameras equipped
with telescopic lenses, showed what appeared to be the start of a small
fire at the base of the huge external fuel tank, followed by the quick
separation of the solid rockets. A huge fireball then engulfed the shuttle
as the external tank exploded.

At the news
conference, Mr. Moore would not speculate on the cause of the disaster.

The estimated
pint of impact for debris was 18 to 20 miles off the Florida coast, according
to space agency officials.

"The search
and rescue teams were delayed getting into the area because of debris continuing
to fall from very high altitudes, for almost an hour after ascent," said
Mr. Nesbitt of Mission Control in Houston.

Speaking
at 1 P. M. in Florida, Lieut. Col. Robert W. Nicholson Jr., a spokesman
for the rescue operation, which is run by the Defense Department, said
range safety radars near the Kennedy Space Center detected debris falling
for nearly an hour after the explosion. "Anything that went into the area
would have been endangered," he said in an interview.

In addition,
the explosion of the huge fuel supply would have created a cloud of toxic
vapors. NASA officials said tonight that the hazardous gases presented
no danger to land, but the Coast Guard was advising boats and ships to
avoid the area.

Not a Good
Ditcher

In an interview
last year, Tommy Holloway, the chief of the flight director office at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston, talked about the possibility of a shuttle
crash at sea.

"This airplane
is not a good ditcher," he said: "It will float O.K. if it doesn't break
apart, and we have hatches we can blow off the top. But the orbiter lands
fast, at 190 knots. You come in and stop in 100 yards or so. You decelerate
like gangbusters, and anything in the payload bay comes forward. We don't
expect a very good day if it comes to that."

On board
Challenger was the world's privately owned communication satellite, the
$100 million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, which with its rocket boosters
weighed 37,636 pounds.

This morning,
water froze on the shuttle service structure, used for fire fighting equipment
and for emergency showers that technicians would use if they were exposed
to fuel. The takeoff was delayed because space agency officials feared
that during the first critical seconds of launching, icicles might fly
off the service structure and damage the delicate heat-resistant tiles
on the shuttle, which are crucial for the vehicle's re-entry through the
earth's atmosphere.